When my late cat, Nutsy, was alive, I used to write a column every week on my Facebook page like "Wagahai wa neko de aru" an old Japanese text written from the perspective of a cat without telling the reader that fact.

I remember once, I had to write on the topic, "Curiousity Killed The Cat" and I wrote it from the perspective of a stray cat born on a wharf that survived by eating mice and stealing food from the container ships until I was trapped by the RSPCA and taken to the rescue centre where I was adopted by a family with two young kids. I had a few misadventures, such as being closed in the cupboard under the stairs, climbing up into the space between the engine and the radiator in the car because it was cold and the alternator drive belt cutting my leg, but I survived. In the end, I had diabetes and was looked after and I started to go blind. One night, I had a dream where my sister was playing with a ball of yarn and I ran after her. Two nights later, I had the same dream, and I followed my sister over the rainbow bridge.

Society has got to get away from the idea, and there's a ridiculous doctor who has this belief, too, that you have to have a family to be happy. You need INTERACTION to be happy, but a family doesn't have to be a spouse and children. There are plenty of single people who have a pet or pets, and while they may be a substitute for human children, they are quite happy. I say, so long as the house is not squalid and overrun with vermin, what's it matter if a woman, or a man, for that matter, lives alone with their pet or pets?

It's my hope, in the future, that I will have another cat or two and they will be well-fed, have clean litter trays and be filled with love, and no, they won't be a substitute for children or grandchildren, they'll be company.